July 25, 2013

New England ice cream titan Ben & Jerry’s hits town tomorrow, and it’s bringing free tastes of a one-of-a-kind ice cream: Strut over to Pier 57 between 5 and 7 p.m., and you’ll have a chance to sample a flavor crowdsourced from New Yorkers, the result of which, the pint-monger hopes, is the equivalent of this city distilled down into a scoop.

So what does NYC-flavored ice cream taste like?

If you’re inclined (like we were) to say something mildly revolting like “the subway air on the Eighth Avenue L platform in a heatwave” or “used hot dog water infused with smoke from the nearby gyro cart,” know that the Vermont-based frozen dairy behemoth has, blessedly, filtered your (and our) opinion out.

The good people of Ben & Jerry’s were kind enough to drop by our office for a preview of the snack, and we learned that NYC-flavored ice cream tastes a lot like other Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, not least because it’s studded with big chunks of the same brownies used throughout the line. Those brownies, as it turns out, are actually local–they come from Greyston Bakery, a Yonkers-based organization that helps rehabilitate adults that need help gaining or re-gaining work skills and job experience.

Our scoop was also ribboned with caramel from Spoonable Caramels and imbued with Sixpoint Brewery’s 3Beans, a beer made with Mast Brothers chocolate and Stumptown coffee. Yours, if you head to the party, will be topped with caramel corn from Liddabit Sweets.

Ben & Jerry’s hasn’t revealed the name of its new treat yet–you can find that out tomorrow at the unveiling. Spokespeople also say this is, at least for now, a one-off event. So if you want to try NYC-flavored ice cream, do it tomorrow–because there aren’t immediate plans to sell it by the pint.